Age: At least two years old.<\/p>\n
Appearance: A hunkless vista, as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n
Hunks of what? Hunks of the male persuasion \u2013 masculine, well-built, handsome fellows.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s a shortage of those? A\u00a0bigger-than-usual shortage? A\u00a0dire\u00a0shortage.<\/p>\n
Where did all the hunks go? Nobody\u00a0knows.<\/p>\n
So how do we know there\u2019s a shortage? Because the organisers of the Mr England contest<\/a> are having difficulty attracting sufficient hunks to participate in this year\u2019s competition. Despite the launch of the biennial search over the summer, only seven men have entered the contest.<\/p>\n Seven? Seven so far. Oddly enough, a\u00a0very similar thing happened two years ago, when men were \u201ca bit shy and slow in coming forward\u201d, according to\u00a0the organisers.<\/p>\n So what we\u2019re actually talking about is a nation\u00adwide disinclination on the part of men to submit themselves to a competition based on physical appearance. Exactly \u2013 a hunk shortage.<\/p>\n I must admit, I\u2019m not terribly surprised. But the Miss England contest, which is run by the same organisers, attracts thousands of entrants each year.<\/p>\n Yeah, still not that surprised. The hunk drought remains a mystery: what happened to England\u2019s strong, chiselled, 17- to 22-year-old men? And\u00a0why are they so reluctant to take\u00a0part in a beauty pageant?<\/p>\n What did they do about the lack of interest two years ago? They sent the reigning Miss England, a lifeguard called Milla Magee<\/a>, to her local beach in Newquay, Cornwall, in search of recruits. Another 100 men joined up as a result of the publicity.<\/p>\n